Cars raced passed me as I rode my bicycle along Nicholson Drive to LSU’s campus on my daily commute my sophomore year. Some coming close to brushing the side of my shoulder. After growing up with an abundance of transportation options, such as the Regional Transportation District (RTD) system in Denver, Colorado, and a community full of safe sidewalks, bike paths, and trails, I quickly realized that roadways and transportation in Louisiana are geared toward those who able to own and operate motor vehicles. 

 

Originally from cyclist-friendly Colorado, I found the inability to ride a bike or run on the streets near my college campus to be inexplicable. Frustrated, I researched Louisiana biking and pedestrian safety efforts only to find a handful of initiatives to improve bike paths in various cities across Louisiana.

 

Commuting by bikes in 2015 in Louisiana was on the rise. At the time, New Orleans ranked 5th in the country for the most bike commuters, per capita. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, compiled by the League of American Bicyclists, 3.6 percent of New Orleanians commute by bike in 2015. With a growing cycling commuter population on roads designed for motor vehicles, where vehicle operators are confused or otherwise ignoring traffic regulations, Louisiana became the number three state for cyclist deaths per capita in the country according to the Center for Disease Control as of August 2015 and held the third highest cyclist and pedestrian fatality ranking until 2019. 

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This statistic called 19 year old me to action. I created a social media campaign, Move Happy Louisiana, that educated the public on safety issues relating to biking, walking, running, and rolling in Louisiana. Since receiving the Manship Knight Grant from the Knight Foundation in January 2015, I curated news centering around these issues that has engaged hundreds of thousands of people on social media, which has now turned into a larger social media following surrounding transportation issues in around the country. If you don't follow me online, I post a lot about these topics on my Instagram, @womenmovingpeople. 

 

In Louisiana, and around the country, millennials are less interested in owning a car, and want to live in walkable areas. According the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, one in three Millennials don’t plan on ever moving to the suburbs. In my opinion, now is the time for the nation’s transportation policies to acknowledge, accommodate and support future generation’s demand for safe non-motorized transportation and infrastructure.

 

Over the course of my career, I have constructed plans to add sidewalks, bike paths, crosswalks, and multi-use paths  across the county. I’ve documented traffic fatalities and serious injuries through strategic highway safety plans, vision zero action plans, comprehensive safety action plans, and identified shortcomings of sidewalk infrastructure meeting the Pedestrian Right of Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG). That all started because of my time at LSU. I was just a blonde curly headed girl who couldn’t afford a car that was on a mission. Little did I know that the mission was only beginning. 

 

What really awoke me to the transportation challenges we face in the United States was a moment in time on November 20, 2015. 

 

Have you ever attended a memorial service for someone you didn’t know? That changed for me on November 20, 2015. 

 

LSU Kinesiology Doctoral candidate Zach Wood was struck by a car while riding his bicycle on November 14, 2015. Hundreds of friends, family, and members of the active lifestyle community gathered together to share their memories of Zach and how much he accomplished despite his short 26 years of life.  Zach’s family and friends also wanted to share another message: I was invited to talk at Zach’s vigil as the Move Happy Louisiana Representative about being safe while cycling around Louisiana. As the memorial finished, crowds moved to the LSU Memorial Tower to listen to me and other community members talk about preventing future fatalities. I explained, “I too struggled with close calls just like Zach, who sadly had to lose his life.”  Immediately I was greeted with numerous questions, and offers from people who wanted to get involved with my campaign. 

 

Before coming to Louisiana for my undergraduate degree, I never heard of people dying from traffic fatalities while walking or riding their bike in Colorado. However, deaths of cyclists were, and still are, occurring regularly in my backyard. When Zach died, his accident was not even half a mile away from where I lived. Unfortunately, Zach was just one of many who died that year just in Baton Rouge. The occasions of death made me realize it was time I made a change. 

 

Nine years since then, traffic fatalities and serious injuries still disproportionately affect young people, the elderly, disabled, low income populations, and minorities. And unfortunately, are sadly on the rise nationwide. According to Smart Growth America’s Dangerous by Design publication, the number of people struck and killed while walking reached yet another new high in 2020. 

 

More than 6,500 people were struck and killed while walking in 2020, an average of nearly 18 per day, and a 4.5 percent increase over 2019. In some ways, the challenges are still the same because there are so many different barriers to fixing the problems we face - transportation design, policy, funding, bigger vehicles, behavior enforcement, and my favorite - stigmas for those who choose to walk, bike, or roll, instead of driving to their destination. 

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Sometimes it may seem like an uphill battle, but instances of death like Zach Wood’s serve as personal motivation to make a difference in our transportation system nationwide. In my opinion, an emphasis needs to be placed on bicycle and pedestrian transportation design and policy programs. While funds have certainly increased to combat constraints in our transportation system, the U.S. Department of Transportation is up against a slew of complex, systemic issues, that get even further complicated at the local level. 

 

Even though Louisiana was the first state I realized the problem, it exists in every state. No community is a stranger to these challenges. I joke that Louisiana was the awakening to my passion, yet I still wake up at 3 a.m. many mornings thinking about the challenges our nation faces. I can’t fix them all. But I hope that you find your why, and are awoken by the fun of riding your bike, or walking through your community.